object with bright lights, which caught fire,broke into three pieces and fell into heavy jungle

Having just found your web site, I would like to report what was seen in 1996. I have tried to find a means of reporting, but always came up blank.

I am a ranch supervisor and between Christmas and the New Year I was on a ranch in the state of , Cojedes. This afternoon in particular, I with two brothers in law plus two people from the ranch drove to the main entrance to the ranch to lock the main gate. The light was changing, going to dusk, driving back to the ranch centre, coming up alongside the air strip, we suddenly saw what first looked like a small plane coming out from behind hills to the left of the strip, with brilliant lights on.

It was about 100 feet up in the air, at first I thought it was one of the owners coming to spend a few days on the ranch.

I very clearly remember seeing what appeared to be round windows within blazing lights. It was about the size of a Cessna two engine plane. I braked to a halt and we leaped out of the truck. As it passed within about 150-200 feet in front of us, I realized that there was no sound coming from it, not even the sound that one would assume that moving through the air would produce.

As it passed in front of us, the light around it was intense, and I also noticed that it was moving on a steady path, keeping level.

Coming through the hills it had managed to pass between two small hills that were definitely taller that the object in the air.

Passing in front of us, it seemed to explode in flames, again there was no sound. As it moved through the air, still keeping on a level plane, the flames were being pushed back around it by the force of air. It looked very similar to when one see’s a shuttle taking off to space.

It continued at its level as it drew away from us into the darkening night sky. We continued watching it and as it was approaching the far hills, it seperated into three pieces which were clearly on fire. At this stage the three separate pieces fell into heavy jungle that is in that area.

This area at this time of the year is exceptionally full and very green; also because we are then coming out of the rainy season, the ground still had water and would have been quite soft.

To confirm what we actually saw, the following day, on the news, appeared a report of a pilot with a small plane that was passed by an object full of light, to which this pilot did an emergency landing as it frightened him. The object was travelling roughly north where it was spotted by several people at a village where the object then changed course to fly east, and then manoeuvred between the two hills to pass in front of us.